Immigration

“I think it’s easy for people like you and me who wear suits and ties and work in offices to cast aspersions on those with a tenth-grade education . . . But let’s talk about some of these folks with a tenth-grade education . . . I have had the opportunity to meet over the years many farmworkers who have had families die under brutal conditions in the heat so that you or I can have less expensive orange juice, cheaper artichokes, or less expensive garlic . . . and I just want to suggest that these people have given far more to American society than you or I ever will.” - Congressman Ted W. Lieu

More on Immigration

WASHINGTON- Today, Congressman Ted W. Lieu (D-Los Angeles County) issued the following statement after it was reported that FBI Director Christopher Wray discussed the counterintelligence threat of Chinese nationals in the U.S. academic sector during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing.

The racist insult against Dreamers by President Donald Trump’s chief of staff was so toxic Tuesday that Fox News Channel ignored it in prime time while CNN and MSNBC played it up in heavy rotation.

The Trump enforcer, General John Kelly, told The Washington Post on a recording that some eligible residents did not file for DACA immigration status because they were “too lazy to get off their asses.”

White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly on Tuesday suggested that some young immigrants eligible for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program failed to apply for the legal protections because they were too afraid — or “too lazy to get off their asses.”

Kelly’s portrayal of young immigrants as “lazy” infuriated advocates, Democratic lawmakers and “dreamers” themselves. Critics called the statement “ignorant,” “discriminatory” and “cruel.” There are many barriers to applying to DACA, advocates say, including fear, cost and misinformation. But laziness?

I went into the State of the Union address trying to keep an open mind. President Donald Trump spent the first year of his presidency spewing hateful ideas and promoting policies harmful to our democratic institutions and Americans. Still, I had hoped the president would take steps to unify our increasingly fractured nation. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen.

On September 18, 2017, the Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) published a notice in the Federal Register redefining the scope of records (so-called “A-Files”) the agency keeps on immigrants, aliens, and naturalized citizens to include social media information and other public-facing data.

Lawmakers are trying come up with a solution for thousands of undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children as the Oct. 5 deadline to renew the immigrants’ status under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program approaches.

"Sen. Lankford and I are obviously from same area, we share the same state and constituency. He and I have long discussions about DACA and continue to work together on some solutions," Rep. Steve Russell (R-Okla.) told The Hill.

Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Los Angeles) is a naturalized American citizen, having emigrated from Taiwan as a young child.

Earlier this month, under a newproposed policy, the Department of Homeland Security said it will begin collecting public social media information about immigrants—possibly also green card holders and naturalized citizens—and include them as part of their so-called "Alien File."

WASHINGTON – Today, Congressman Ted W. Lieu (D | Los Angeles County) sent a letter to Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Elaine Duke asking her to delay a newly-proposed rule updating the Department’s electronic immigration system until Congress is provided more details. As a naturalized citizen, Mr. Lieu is alarmed that this broad-stroke policy to collect the social media information of anyone who has immigrated to the United States, regardless of status, could have massive privacy and constitutional implications.